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Marshall County Schools Greenhouse Plant Sales Begin Monday

By SHELLEY HANSON 4 min read

GLEN DALE - For John Marshall High School junior K. Phillips, seeing a tiny seed grow into a 6-foot tall tomato plant or bloom into a beautiful flower gives her a sense of accomplishment like no other.

Phillips and her fellow Marshall County Schools students' work to grow thousands of plants from seeds, plugs and cuttings will come to fruition starting Monday, when they begin selling the flowers and vegetables they have cultivated for the last several months to the public.

The flowers, vegetables, houseplants and more will be sold at greenhouses at John Marshall High, Cameron High School, Moundsville Middle School and Sherrard Middle School.

John Marshall agriculture education teacher Nicole Shipman said the students began their work in January and have worked since on germinating seeds, planting cuttings, planting plugs and tending to the plants in preparation for the annual sale.

"It takes about 115 of us to get it all planted into the soil and 12 to take care of it full-time the rest of the year," Shipman said. "The rest of the season the greenhouse management class takes care of this."

This year she is especially impressed with heirloom tomatoes the students were able to grow from seeds from a tomato someone ate one day for lunch. Those plants are now 6 feet tall and are called pineapple tomatoes, which is a mixture of a red and yellow tomato.

Shipman is proud of her students for growing and taking care of all the plants. She said this is the first year she has left the daily management of the greenhouse to the students, giving them direction and guidance as needed.

"The rest of it all came from them. They figured out the fertilizer schedule. They would come and tell you when there were problems; they were not afraid to make the mistakes," she said.

"Really this is all them. They're making sure everything is pinched back properly and created a great environment for this stuff to grow."

Phillips noted her interest in agriculture began when she was in fifth grade. She has been in the JM agriculture program for three years. She loves "everything" about it. Running a greenhouse is among her top job ideas after college.

"It's not like I even come down here to work, I come down here to be a part of something," Phillips said. "I feel like I did a good job. I come in here and I'm like, 'I did this, we did this.'"

Shipman said her students have remarked that working in the greenhouse makes their day better, that it is impossible to have a bad day while digging in the dirt or tending to plants.

Phillips said her favorite plant grown this year are the tomatoes even though she does not like to eat them herself. She also enjoyed growing new jade plants from the petals of other plants.

Shipman said their goal is to sell $3,000 worth of plants in one day. She noted the plants will go pretty fast. People will be lined up before the doors even open, she added.

-- At JM, the greenhouse is at the back of the building. Its operating hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

-- Cameron High's greenhouse will be open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays.

-- Moundsville Middle's greenhouse sales will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday for the first week. Then on Monday, May 8, the greenhouse will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday.

-- Sherrard Middle's greenhouse will be open every school day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday.

The public is invited to shop at each location, which will remain open until everything is sold.

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